Stocks Rise amid Climb in Retail Sales

Stocks were higher in the early going, while overall

retail sales

rose 0.9% in February.

Retail sales, excluding autos, rose 0.2%.

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

was up 35 to 9808. The

S&P 500

was up 4 to 1291.

The

Nasdaq Composite Index

was up 14 to 2420. The

Russell 2000

was up 1 to 402.

TheStreet.com Internet Sector

was up 7 to 595.

TheStreet.com E-Commerce Index

was up 3 to 112.

The 30-year Treasury bond was down 10/32 to 95 9/32, yielding 5.58%, in the wake of the retail sales report.

Most Up at Open -- NYSE

BP Amoco (BPA) , up 4 7/8 to 93 1/8

: The oil company was higher thanks to stronger oil prices.

Most Up at Open -- Nasdaq

VerticalNet (VERT) , up 4 3/4 to 101

.

Most Down at Open -- NYSE

Nokia (NOKA) , down 2 5/16 to 148 1/8

.

Most Down at Open -- Nasdaq

InfoSpace.com (INSP) - Get Report, down 11 15/16 to 73

: The company yesterday filed with the

Securities and Exchange Commission

a registration to sell up to 2.8 million shares.